Tuesday, January 19, 2010

This morning 53 of the 150 children at BRESMA orphanage and one of the McMutrie sisters, Ali, arrived safely in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to great celebration. Jamie McMutrie will be arriving soon with one last child who had gone missing and she had stayed behind to find. They have been granted a two year humanitarian visa. 47 of the children had already been in various stages of adoption to the U.S., Canada, and Spain before the quake, and 7 are to be placed. The balance of the children at BRESMA were similarly evacuated to France and the Netherlands, where they had also been in the process of being placed before the quake struck.They were accompanied by Gov. Rendell and members of Congress and a host of medical personnel.

To say that this is a unique situation is a gross understatement! The unfolding of this story involved a inspiring and at times flawed marshaling of human power through networking channels, most notably through social media networks.

There will be a lot of lessons to be learned from the situation, but for now two American women and a vast network of supporters inspired by their passion moved mountains and over one hundred Haitian children are on their way to the arms of their new families.

Saturday, January 16, 2010

The devastation is unimaginable, the need is overwhelming, and the feelings of helplessness are almost suffocating. It's hard to know what to do, whom to donate to, whom to trust will do the right things, get to the right people. In the wake of such a crisis, scams abound, preying upon the desperate need to do something to help. I have to say in the hours and days following the catastrophic earthquake in Haiti I've been a bit numb to it. On purpose. It was just too much to take in.

That was before I learned about #BRESMA.

For those not familiar with Twitter-speak, the hash tag is a way of linking and following a common thread on Twitter. As I reviewed my daily Twitter feed, amidst the #Haiti tweets that were rolling in, the tweets about an orphanage in Port-Au-Prince that is spearheaded by two young sisters from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania started to catch my attention. By Saturday, when the distressing tweets started to appear that this orphanage, currently caring for 150 children and babies was nearly out of water,I knew I couldn't turn away.

I started retweeting the distress call put out by @JanePitt, a columnist from Pittsburgh who is working with the women's family to coordinate information and get their story out via her blog. As I started to learn the background of these amazing, and humble, young women who have found their life's calling in helping these children, I became convinced that amidst all the chaos and bewildering need, focusing on getting attention and immediate help to these individuals that make such an impact was a way that I could contribute something more beyond my dollars. These women literally climb mountains, and have traveled in treacherous hurricane conditions to reach children in need. And they have a astounding 100% placement rate, and the fastest in the Haitian adoption community due to their dogged determination. These kids all have families waiting for them! I felt something needed to be done, and NOW.

I am not alone. This is where Twitter gets amazing.

My fellow tweeters have also been furiously broadcasting this singular SOS. News people, politicians, even no joke, an aircraft carrier sitting off the coast were targeted to try and get their attention, to find someone who knew someone on the ground to get water to them. Celebrities with large followings were appealed to, and it was wonderful to see @JillianMichaels and @Alyssa_Milano take notice and retweet to their followers, eliciting an immediate bump in the volume. CNN had even been there previously, and was running a segment about them. GPS coordinates were posted to aid anyone who could get someone there.

Information and pleas were flying. This is where Twitter gets dicey.

As I said, CNN had been there in the last several days, and they started to report the news that the women had secured permission to get the children out! But unfortunately that information was inaccurate, taken from an AP report sourced from an incorrect local Pittsburgh media report. So the tweets started rolling out to not lose focus, these women and their charges ARE not out of the woods by a long shot.

But a bright spot. This is where Twitter gets inspiring.

From @collazoprojects, a managing editor for a travel publication based out of Mexico City, I learned that he and a connection had networked to get a person on the ground to the orphanage, and had spoken with him this evening. He reported that while their need is severe (especially for baby items) that they are staying strong and holding on.

Tonight I'll pray. Tomorrow, I'll check my Twitter feed, and see if beyond resources there is anything else I can do to help people a world away, caught in hell, who thanks to social media now have names and faces.

I pray that it will be enough for the McMutrie sisters and their young charges.

Friday, January 15, 2010

The tragedy in Haiti is dominating news, and I've been following the efforts to help the BRESMA orphanage. There were several adoptions in progress for this orphanage and others, and distraught adoptive parents are intently trying to find any way to get to and help their children.

A four year old medicated, and who allegedly died from an overdose! The trial for the parents is just getting under way. I have a longer post brewing on this one coming.

I see where he's coming from, but not sure that I agree with Gever Tully about his "5 Dangerous Things for Kids," but certainly food for thought.

School pressure mania is starting to seep into my household as my son approaches three. It's all to easy to buy into the anxious worry that your child will not be prepared. And, it's insane that this worry starts virtually in the womb. A well done post on the "Importance of Simple Play" that I think most parents need to hear.

Autism clusters in Northern CA. Increasingly research is seeing some perhaps causal link with autism and highly educated parents, but is it a true biological link, or more of a commentary about informed and tenacious parents who get their kids recognized on the spectrum?

Saturday, January 9, 2010

Unless you engage in little or no social media, you are no doubt aware of the bra color breast cancer awareness meme circulating. In theory the cute, indeed attention grabbing antic, serves it's purpose and gets people talking in great numbers very quickly about an important topic. Seemed like a good idea to me, and I shared. But what innocently gets forgotten is its effect upon those that have suffered, or struggle to survive the very thing that you are trying to raise awareness about. You see, by drawing attention to the bra, you are also drawing painful attention for those who have, or have survived, breast cancer to the one symbol of their femininity that many of them no longer have. This dimension was eloquently written about by a blogger, Susan Niebur, aka WhyMommy, here, and definitely deserves a read. I say, share on, and be grateful you are able to. But also have a thought for the breast cancer survivor who can not, and maybe do something out of awareness of that.

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

1. Gender equity, specifically how women are treated, is closely linked with the effectiveness of efforts to control climate change according to an essay in The Jakarta Post. Evidently we're also most affected by climate change, and when a natural disaster strikes, women are more vulnerable. In the developed world, we usually control household decisions, and hold increased influence over strategies to combat climate change.

2. A woman, who has nine natural children claims that she was sterilized without her consent while undergoing a cesarean section in 2006, and is suing for damages. The story is complicated with some fishy details on both sides of the suit; the hospital contends that record of her consent can not be found in its records--not that it didn't happen, just that it could not be found. Also, there are some questions surrounding the woman, as she has previously filed suit and settled over being sold expired spermicide. She contends that even though people may not agree with her life and choices, she still has the right to decide on her own reproductive destiny.

and

3. A British medical journal claims that the female "G spot" is a modern myth. The study presented was conducted with several pairs of identical and fraternal twins and involved asking them if they had the notoriously difficult for men to find G spot, and the study's authors claim that because the majority of the search set reported not having one (even if their twin reported that they did), it just must not exist.

No clever observations on these stories, except to observe that if found to be true that the woman was effectively sterilized against her will, strikes me as a fundamental issue of freedom of choice, and should be treated as such, irregardless of her life circumstances. Kind of an interesting twist on the right to life/freedom of choice debate don't you think? And I've heard that sex is in a woman's head, but we are all under the influence of a massive delusion? Hmmm. And I have to grouse a little bit...now we've got the weight of climate change on our shoulders to?

About Me

The character trait I am most proud of is my insatiable curiousity. Parenthood has added dimension and focus to my natural need to know. I am a mother to a precocious young toddler and an infant, who inspire, challenge and enrich my life moment by moment.
I am a freelance writer and ghostwriter, and if you are interested in working with me, I can be contacted at Kirsten.E.Branch@gmail.com.

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Welcome to Relevant Mom

It feels appropriate that I launch Relevant Mom at 6:00 am on Mother's Day, after resettling my husband and son back into their peaceful slumbers, and finding myself wide awake with words and ideas swirling in my head. I had been waiting for that spark that would help me introduce why I felt I needed to share my personal journey and interests with others in this medium; so thanks God, but I really could have used some more precious sleep!

A constant in my life, and frankly probably my best personality trait, is my curiousity, my need to know. Previous to becoming a mother, I was a collector of information, all of it seemingly random. I clipped articles, and I amassed an eclectic library of books that I simply found interesting in the moment. I reveled in the sheer variety of my curious impulse.

Motherhood was a catalyst for me. What I needed to know and why it was important all took on greater focus and clarity. My place in the world, and my concern for the rest of it became very immediate and raw. My intellectual curiousity did not dim upon giving birth, rather it was energized and inspired by an entirely new slate of questions. Oh, I still enjoy the odd bit of celebrity gossip, but I have found a decreasing level of interest in such things overall. I sought a parenting source that was relevant to me, and what I found didn't quite fit the bill, so I decided to create it for myself and others of similar interests. Also, becoming a mother, my time became very very short! Others of my acquaintance, whom I shared bits and peices I thought would be useful to them, wondered where I had found the time to find this information, and told me how much they valued their "dashboard" motherhood news flash, and thus an idea was born.

My vision for Relevant Mom at this time is to provide news, resources and commentary that is relevant and useful to a mom. But to be clear, these are things that interest ME, and perhaps you as well. I am not an impartial news service, and really, does that actually exist anyway? Like me, some days it might be serious and cerebral, and others just plain silly and flippant. I hope you enjoy the gamut and all the spaces in between. Visit when you want and can. I hope the information you find is useful, and that you might find something of which you were not aware. In the coming weeks and months, I will add lots of resources that I have come across in my personal research. Be forewarned, I welcome conversation, but not disrespectful diatribes.

Now, the house is stirring, and the cat wants her share of the mommy attention for the day, so it is on to the business of motherhood.